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1.6: Poisoning People. With Friendship!
Poisoning People. With Friendship! So, once again we find our heroes... oh wait, they slept in relative comfort this time and no one died or was attacked in the night! Finally a peaceful place to rest! After spending the night at Caervy's excellent Stag's Rest inn, Sajaina and Perlapae with company, ''our party found themselves in sore need of fashion for a felicitous foray into Elvan politics. They had a meeting with the Earl of Linn, you see, and were hoping to convince him to get the ball rolling on some defenses against the Orcish Sky Pirates. Fortunately for us, Caireann happened to know a tailor! Sal transmuted some basic materials into more expensive versions for Marielena the Tailor, saving the party some cost while helping out the shop. Marielena also mentioned the passing of King Oga and his replacement by his brother. So, you know, everyone just calls him King Oga. That's not confusing at all! Gruk, naturally, disdained decent fashion and elected to go in armor and cape to nobody's surprise. All decorated in delectable drapery, the party sallied forth to slay that great dragon called Diplomacy. Don't think that's an apt metaphor? Oh just you wait and see! Now numbering 11- if you include Bagel the Great and Powerful, Wrynn the Ghostly Presence, and Gadgette- Baygrith's new artificial life which he uses as a... work bench (we have serious questions regarding slavery and indentured servitude!) they walked through the portal to Linn'. Greeted by guards demanding information, each party member had to surrender their name, occupation and reason for visiting. Rather more militaristic a greeting than had been expected, the sense that something was amiss began leaping up and down to be noticed, and was immediately placed on a fiery, glowing pedestal when the guards absolutely refused to answer any questions regarding a burned down building clearly visible from the party's vantage point. The party did not walk away entirely without information however, as the Guards didn't believe that Sal was really a halfling. A number of party members were quietly skeptical as well, though quite prepared to punch someone if they made too big an issue over it. A magical test of Sal's blood revealed, much to even our surprise, that he really was a tall halfling. We REALLY want to meet his parents now. For their part, the guards were really apologetic about their accusations, which is just as well. Walking through town, our protagonists passed a scaffold from which hung the bodies of several elves, publicly displayed for the convenience of NOT EXPLAINING ANYTHING, but serving as a clear warning against whatever it is they had done. The sense of something amiss was immediately upgraded to profound suspicion. Nevertheless, the team made their way to the Elf Lord's manor through the cobbled and somewhat worse-for-wear streets. They were greeted in the opulent parlor where servants divested them of their weapons and other gadgets (pun intended), then lead them into the dinning hall to meet with the local lord. The table was magnificent, or so we are told. It was filled with all manner of delicacies from the lands around Dyffryn Caidris and was served with wine. It was glorious, delicious, and pretty much a huge display of how wealthy the Earl was. We find such ridiculous excess incredibly tacky, actually. Now about that diplomacy dragon... Dinner was going more or less fine, with lots of small talk, big talk and even medium talk, until Sal sneezed. Such a little thing, a sneeze, and easily dismissed as unimportant. Unless of course you sneeze multicolored goo all over your napkin. A little freaked out about this, Sal hid the napkin and considered worriedly. When he felt his ear start to droop slowly towards the ground and couldn't get it to stay in place, he excused himself, quickly followed by Perlapae. Sajaina eventually left to check up on them as well. Ignoring that tremendously interesting part of the story in order to build suspense, the Dragon of Diplomacy was still being slain back at the table. Oddly, it was not slain by our party, some of whom have quite a knack for slaying Diplomacy Dragons of all sizes and dispositions. Instead, the Earl casually mentioned that the Maharaja of Mura'Kesz had placed a huge price on the heads of our intrepid adventurers and called us in as international criminals. The crime? Harboring a fugitive. Her crime? Leaving the city without asking permission first. Permission, by the way, she would not have gotten unless she was magically rendered infertile. Great Spark throughout, there is something wrong with that man! So why mention this? Turns out the Earl had an offer to make, but he wasn't yet done stating the terms. Turns out that he could also confirm the capture of some of the party's close relations by the Dragon Wings. Fricken' Orc Sky Pirates! Those captured were: Sajaina's Brother-in-law, Baygrith's father, Perlapae's teacher and pair-bond, and Timmeron's fiance. The Earl also had good reason to think he knew where they were being held. His total offer included: helping us evade the Maharaja's political claim to our lives and telling us where the aforementioned family members could probably be found. You don't start with an offer that good unless you want something in return. He did, and it wasn't a small thing. Recently, he explained, the new king of the Elves had passed away due to 'mysterious causes' *cough*'assassination'*cough* '''and the new king did not like the Earl so much. Next in line to the throne was a man who was much more inclined to strike a deal with our new 'friend'. The request, of course, was that the party find a away to either make the current king more amenable to his requests and personal interests, or remove the current king and allow his brother to take the throne. Well damn. The group was, generously, given time to confer among themselves, during which they began to wonder if Sal was alright. In the mean time, Sal had not been doing so well. Sajaina and Perlapae took turns watching over him and attending the dining room. For his part, Sal's entire left side was giving him trouble. It was wobbly and oozed slightly down. Perlapae was able to massage his ear back into place. Sal did some experiments with his arm and discovered that it could squish and bend well beyond ordinary limitations. It could also stretch if pulled. He and Perlapae discovered the hard way that the arm would then have to be carefully pressed back into place. The two called in the Manor's in-house mage who could not detect any magic taking place. According to him, Sal was completely normal and he should call the healer. Perlapae led Sal to the healer who quite excitedly recommended several remedies, including potions, skin creams and inhalants, none of which worked, and all of which Sal's body immediately rejected with unpleasant side effects, poor guy!The mage was called back and shown Sal's oddly bendy arms and the blue mucus that would leak if he was cut or when he sneezed. The man decided it was worth alerting the Caervy mages, who would cart Sal away to experiment on him. This was not a good thing and, later, a quick word to the Lordling about how hard such a thing would make it to accept his offer put a stop to it. At this point the dinning group arrived in the Mansion's Healer's ward to see how Sal was doing. He sneezed his eye right out of his head, which Perlapae was thankfully able to re-attach with a quick application of magic. So gross! I mean, be considerate, man! Sneezing your eye out like that is bound to give someone a heart attack! Bagel and Timmeron investigated and concluded that this was definitely a lingering effect from when Sal had been hit with a high-intensity magical ray while they were retrieving the Key. He seemed able to function normally as long as he wasn't undergoing intense stress, which could cause his body to deform or ooze. How do you even fix that? Wrynn recommended that the group search out the mind of the Tower of Apotheosis biology expert who would surely have some idea of what to do. He, or she, or it...? was, naturally, locked behind one of the Doors, requiring a Key and a Password to get to. While worrying about Sal, the group considered the Lordling's offer. They eventually decided to accept, contingent on him proving he had knowledge of were the missing family members were. He showed the group exactly that, playing for them the first half of a magical recording of the scene where they were captured. He promised to show another recording with clues to their location if the group succeeded. The group was justifiably unhappy about this, and we agree with them! It was extortion pure and simple! Holding the safety of innocent people hostage for nothing more than personal gain. Scoundrel! With no good way to get around it, the group agreed to attempt the task,though they would do their absolute best not to actually hurt anyone, no matter the Lordling's preferences. Gruk hurled the bastard across the room for his blatant manipulations. We don't approve of violence, but this...? It's hard not to feel at least a little good about that. Consider the Dragon dead and buried! Leaving the mansion somewhat tense about the upcoming coronation they were supposed to crash, the group was escorted back to the portal to Caervy by a mounted guard who was promptly shot through the head in the middle of explaining about the recent revolts (which in turn explained the burned buildings and the hanging bodies). Poor guy! It's almost as if he entered the party's lives only to provide exposition and, when drama served, be cut down. This did leave the group in something of a spot, since they were being attacked by the rebels! Immediately picking up the pace, they sprinted towards the Caervy portal, trying to dodge arrows and the like along the way. Perlapae spotted a burning building with diplomats from other nations inside. She diverted her course, running into the building. Timmeron, Travize and Sal broke off to follow her while Sajaina, Baygrith, Bagel and Caireann ran on ahead without noticing their allies had stayed behind. Gruk? He had already drawn his sword at the first sign of trouble and was looking for a way to attack the archers on the roof while the others had been deciding what to do. Many stupid, brave, insightful, and skillful things were done by all, but in brief: Travize and Gruk did their best to stop the archers on the roofs of the buildings. Travize tried to scare off his archers or disable them, or knock them off the roof, while Gruk cut them down. Timmeron and Perlapae entered the embassy to save those trapped inside. Through a combination of wind, time and healing magic, persuasion, and undesired combat, they disabled the rebels in the building and let the diplomats out. Sal provided some healing to Timmeron and Travize, in addition to freeing some golems which had been disabled with magical rods. Most proved worrying unhelpful, though a locksmith was called, we are assured. The golems did put out fires and chase away some of the rebels, though. Sajaina Caireann and Baygrith, on their way out, discovered that the rebels were hiding bombs in the ally ways. They managed to disable the rebels they found with a combination of stealth and strength, while also disabling the bombs courtesy of Baygrith's quick fingers. Bagel? He was around. Somewhere. Maybe he hid during the fight. In the end, Sajaina, Caireann and Baygrith made it through the portal to Caervy and tried to recruit the help of the guards in stopping the rebels. Apparently they had been told to stay where they were and to allow the Linn guards to take care of the problem. Sajaina got fed up with the delays and sneaked into the guard's sleeping quarters to rub her newly brewed Goldenroot poison onto a sleeping guard's arm. As the poison took hold, the man was possessed of sudden friendship with Sajaina and rallied the garrison to help, simultaneously giving us the name for this story! Would you look a that! Caireann met with her friend, Allister, who also helped dredge up some support from the surprisingly unhelpful guards. The force charged into the portal to help put down the rebellion. Baygrith, Caireann and Sajaina met up with Travize and Sal as they were going into the embassy after Timmeron and Perlapae who had yet to come out. Together they charged in and helped to rescue the Mura'Kesz ambassador from the rebels, making it out just before the building collapsed. Gruk, on the other hand, sought out his sword, which he had dropped during the conflict with the rebels. He eventually found it in the hands of a man who, after some interrogation by the group, turned out to be an assassin for hire looking for Sajaina. Uh Oh! Gruk subdued him and brought him to the group for said interrogation where Sajaina used her goldenroot poison again so that he would be friendly and talkative towards Gruk. Gruk also found out that the leader of the rebellion was apparently named Darktree. A little too exhausted to deal with everything right at that moment, the group dropped the would-be assassin off with the guards and returned to the inn for the night. Gruk bought a magnificent feast with money he'd taken off of the assassin, which everyone delighted in! But it was also at this feast that the group met Derek. Derek was a very interesting character. Derek had a hand cannon. Sounds really dangerous to us, but Baygrith was fascinated and decided to help fix it in return for a favor later. While Baygrith did that, Derek talked with the group about the political climate and some suspicions about the current king and the upcoming coronation. Damn the group needs to figure out what to do about that... Wrynn had some things to say as well. First off, she really wants the group to pick an object for her to rest in. No big deal. Just get her a body. They all knew how to do that. Naturally. That said, Wrynn did mention that the party should be careful about which mind they choose to free next, since some would be worse for the Dragon Wings to get hold of than others. The biology specialist from earlier, she mentioned, would be bad, but there were also two members of the Tower of Apotheosis that specialized in necromancy and mind control. What? That's a little gross, actually. Mind control? Seriously? Ugh, no wonder they locked that guy away! That said, the necromancy expert might be able to help Timmeron with his... trouble. Trouble? Why yes, Timmeron DID have some trouble. Trouble from a number of years ago, actually, when he experimented with a dark magic ritual to impress his would-be girlfriend and the magics involved ate away his arm. His now fiance cut it off to stop the corruption from spreading to the rest of him, hence the 'brasshand' part of his name. Get it? Because now his hand is made of brass? We crack ourselves up. But anyway, now the corruption was back and, while its spread is slow, it IS spreading. Perhaps the necromancy or biology expert could help reverse the problem. Many things to consider as the group headed off to bed in a comfortable inn. Comfortable though the beds were, their minds were surely occupied by the troubles of their friends and the hard choices ahead. Category:Quests